Wind industry officials say their industry poses little threat to eagle populations and that the permits will provide regulatory certainty to developers of wind farms and various other types of projects.

"The wind industry does more to address its impacts on eagles than any of the other, far greater sources of eagle fatalities known to wildlife experts, and we are constantly striving to reduce these impacts even further," the American Wind Energy Association said Friday.

"In fact, the wind industry has taken the most proactive and leading role of any utility-scale energy source to minimize wildlife impacts in general, and specifically for eagles, through constantly improving siting and monitoring techniques," the group said.

But several conservation groups have been battling the measure, and Yarnold, the Audubon CEO, vowed that the fight will continue even though the measure has been finalized.

"It's outrageous that the government is sanctioning the killing of America's symbol, the Bald Eagle," he said.

"Audubon will continue to look for reasonable, thoughtful partners to wean America off fossil fuels because that should be everyone's highest priority. We have no choice but to challenge this decision, and all options are on the table," Yarnold said.

The rule text touts conservation provisions in the regulation.

"The permits must incorporate conditions specifying additional measures that may be necessary to ensure the preservation of eagles, should monitoring data indicate the need for the measures," it states.

The regulation will "facilitate the responsible development of renewable energy and other projects designed to operate for decades, while continuing to protect eagles consistent with our statutory mandates," the rule states.

In a statement released by the Interior Department Friday, Secretary Sally Jewell defended the rule as a way to bolster alternative energy production. "Renewable energy development is vitally important to our nation's future," Jewell said, adding: "But it has to be done in the right way. "The changes in this permitting program will help the renewable energy industry and others develop projects that can operate in the longer term."

The rule was unveiled Friday and will be published in Monday's Federal Register.

By using this service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or
otherwise objectionable. Although GovExec.com does not monitor comments posted to this site (and
has no obligation to), it reserves the right to delete, edit, or move any material that it deems
to be in violation of this rule.

Database-level encryption had its origins in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to very basic risks which largely revolved around the theft of servers, backup tapes and other physical-layer assets. As noted in Verizon’s 2014, Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)1, threats today are far more advanced and dangerous.

In order to better understand the current state of external and internal-facing agency workplace applications, Government Business Council (GBC) and Riverbed undertook an in-depth research study of federal employees. Overall, survey findings indicate that federal IT applications still face a gamut of challenges with regard to quality, reliability, and performance management.

PIV- I And Multifactor Authentication: The Best Defense for Federal Government Contractors

This white paper explores NIST SP 800-171 and why compliance is critical to federal government contractors, especially those that work with the Department of Defense, as well as how leveraging PIV-I credentialing with multifactor authentication can be used as a defense against cyberattacks

This research study aims to understand how state and local leaders regard their agency’s innovation efforts and what they are doing to overcome the challenges they face in successfully implementing these efforts.

The U.S. healthcare industry is rapidly moving away from traditional fee-for-service models and towards value-based purchasing that reimburses physicians for quality of care in place of frequency of care.